Toronto Fire on Monday terminated three firefighters for what it calls breaches of the city’s policy on social media, a spokesman said Monday evening.

The firing comes one month after the National Post published a story about attempts at Toronto Fire to recruit more women and visible minorities. In that story, the Post republished just a few tweets from accounts connected to two firefighters in Scarborough.

“Reject a woman and she will never let it go. One of the many defects of their kind. Also weak arms,” read a tweet last November from the account of Matt Bowman. A tweet in March from the same account read: “I’d never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried something I’d be like hey! you get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!”

Those tweets quote lines from television shows. The first originated on The Office, and the second one on South Park.

On June 5 a tweet from the account of Lawaun Edwards read, “would swat her in the back of the head been considered abuse or a way to reset the brain?”

A tweet from Mr. Bowman’s account in August read, “the way to a woman’s heart is through anal.”

Toronto Fire was not amused. Stephan Powell, a spokesman for Toronto Fire, said that after “an extensive investigation,” on Monday Toronto Fire fired the three firefighters at a meeting at headquarters. He confirmed that two of them were Mr. Bowman and Mr. Edwards. He did not name the third employee.

The investigation, Mr. Powell said, “uncovered several breaches of the city’s policy on the use of social media. We found a pattern that clearly violated those policies.

“The City of Toronto nor Toronto Fire Services can condone such behaviour and hence the action to terminate the firefighters,” he added, reading from a statement.

“Members of the Toronto Fire Service are in a position of public trust. This trust is paramount to the division’s ability to carry out its work and deliver critical services to all Toronto residents. The city is committed to ensuring a harmonious, equitable environment that is free from discrimination or harassment in the workplace and in the broader community.”

Toronto Fire Services cannot condone such behaviour

When asked about the tweets in August, the city’s fire chief, Jim Sales, said conduct of that nature was “absolutely unacceptable.”

CityTV reported that the third firefighter was fired over a photo posted on FaceBook.

In July Chief Sales presented a report to the city’s executive committee called “A Path to Diversity.”

Just 5.2% of Toronto Fire employees are women; visible minorities make up 4.2% of fire service employees. Most women at Toronto Fire work in fire prevention or communications, answering 9-1-1 calls, rather than on fire trucks. Of 2,742 Toronto firefighters on fire trucks, 67 are women.